david's doodles

Disenfranchised

U.S. citizens will be going to the polls tomorrow. Some have already voted. All hope that their vote will be counted -- but there’s no guarantee.

As previous elections have demonstrated, the U.S. electoral system is badly flawed. In the 2004 election, more than three million ballots were never counted. While there are “spoiled ballots” at every election, the numbers have reached unprecedented heights. In 2004 New Mexico, for example, the uncounted vote was five times higher than Bush’s supposed victory margin.

“

Tim Daly from Clarendon got a call saying that if he votes Tuesday, he will be arrested.

”

 -- Daily Kos 6 Nov 2006

There is also the matter of getting to cast a ballot in the first place. With most jurisdictions requiring registration ahead of time, and the rules for eligibility varying from place to place, there is often confusion as to whether the registration has been accepted or rejected. While it is possible to vote at a different location from the one you are assigned, you get a provisional ballot. Such ballots may be rejected on entirely spurious grounds. Worse, there is no way for the voter to find out if their vote was counted.

Then there is the issue of the new electronic voter machines. These typically have no paper trail, although in the wake of the questionable results in 2004, some jurisdictions now require a receipt. However, 15 states will be using paperless machines tomorrow.

It’s not only the voters at the polling station who use electronic machines to record their vote. Those who fill in paper ballots, as well as those so-called “provisional” votes, will also be entered into electronic voting machines. An independent test by a Princeton researcher recently demonstrated he could alter the vote count of a Diebold machine in less than a minute.

Investigative journalist Greg Palast has documented many of the irregularities found in the 2004 election. But while Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002, eight of the fifty states are still not in compliance.

There is also the matter of "dirty tricks". Daily Kos is reporting that some Democratic voters are getting voice mail and email telling them they are not qualified to vote, and will be arrested if they show up, or that the polling location had changed. Several other misinformation campaigns have been reported as well. This, too, was a feature of the 2004 election.

Finally, we come to the "October Surprise" that actually happened over the weekend. A verdict in the first trial of Saddam Hussein was delayed until yesterday - just in time to grab the headlines the day before the U.S. elections. A report in The Nation a couple of weeks ago noted that this was planned, yet everyone is supposed to be surprised by the announcement. I feel sure it is only the gullible American public who are taken in, and only those who are not paying attention. Sadly, that applies to a very large number, so the “stay-the-course” faction may well receive a small fillip in the elections from the announcement.

There is obviously more to say about the Hussein verdict, but back to tomorrow’s voting. It looks like the results will be inconclusive, and at least as much in doubt as the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. There are likely to be challenges to the results in many districts, with the final results not available possibly for weeks.

I hope that I’m wrong. But I’m not staying up tomorrow night to find out.